Written Answers Thursday 9 April 2009

Scottish Executive

Constitution

Christina McKelvie (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Calman Commission on Scottish Devolution has offered the evidence it has gathered as a submission to the National Conversation and, if not, whether it will be invited to do so.

Michael Russell: The Commission on Scottish Devolution has not formally offered its evidence to the National Conversation. The Scottish Government has consistently said that the Commission might make a useful contribution to the National Conversation, although this will necessarily be limited by its narrow remit.

Economy

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to meet Scotnom.

John Swinney: The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth hosted a meeting in St Andrew’s House for Scotnom directors and their advisers on 24 February 2009.

  Officials have met with the same directors and advisers on two other occasions.

Information Technology

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is supporting the dotSCOT campaign.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government supports the aims of the dotSCOT Campaign as the successors to the original dotSCO Campaign which submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament in 2008.

  Those aims are to establish a generic top level domain (gTLD) that will reflect Scottish identity, culture and economic promotion among a worldwide community of Internet users.

National Conversation

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many hits on the National Conversation website there were in each month of 2008 and what percentage of hits has been return or multiple visits.

Michael Russell: There have been over 474,000 hits on the National Conversation website themed pages; 36,500 people have read the white paper on-line; 10,800 downloads of the white paper; and 4,300 comments have been posted on the blog. This is evidence of the website’s success as a platform for debate about Scotland’s future.

  The table shows the number of hits on National Conversation themed pages by month in 2008. Approximately 77% of visitors to the site during this period were new. It is anticipated that the launch of the next phase of the National Conversation will result in another rise in take up.

  

 January 
 20,761


 February 
 21,765


 March 
 30,544


 April 
 22,086


 May 
 23,658


 June 
 14,707


 July 
 11,970


 August 
 11,907


 September 
 10,190


 October 
 9,280


 November
 7,704


 December 
 8,105

Renewable Energy

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, with regard to the Communities and Renewable Energy Scheme, when the contract will be awarded and when the scheme will be open to applicants.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government is managing a smooth transition from the Communities support in the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) to the new Communities and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) to prevent disruption to applications or projects in the pipeline. There will be no closure or cessation of support. The CARES contract is due to be awarded on 14 April and CARES will take effect from that date.

Renewable Energy

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether individual householders will be able to access advice and guidance and grant funding under the Communities and Renewable Energy Scheme.

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, following cessation of the Scottish Community and Householder Renewables Initiative, what support will be available for householders who wish to take advantage of their homes’ microgeneration potential.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government’s householder and community renewables support programmes will run as two separate initiatives from April 2009. The new scheme for householders will be the Energy Saving Scotland home renewables – grants. This will be delivered by the Energy Saving Trust.

  Delivery through the Trust will increase the reach of the Energy Saving Scotland identity and so align this programme with the Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centres. As a result there will be a simpler landscape for consumers using Energy Savings Scotland managed programmes.

Voluntary Sector

Nicol Stephen (Aberdeen South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what charities, including social enterprises, it funds (a) entirely or (b) in part and how much funding is provided to each, broken down by parliamentary constituency.

John Swinney: Scottish Government direct support to the Third Sector in 2008-09, through the Third Sector Development Programme, was reported in S3W-16808 on 30 October 2008. In February 2009, the first two awards from the Scottish Investment Fund have been approved, providing £200,000 in grant and £300,000 in loans to Momentum Ltd and £175,000 in grant and £250,000 in loan to Out of the Blue.

  Support is also available to third sector organisations through a number of other funding streams; many of which are competitive in nature, open to organisations out with the third sector or dependent on an applications process. The number and identity of those organisations can only be identified retrospectively and the information would not identify the parliamentary constituency in which the organisation is based or operates. It would be extremely unusual for a third sector organisation to be entirely funded by Scottish Government.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.